Game refuses to run

Boughton · December 4, 2002, 19:18

I used to play this game quite a bit a long time ago. The other day I decided to dig it back out of the closet and install it on this machine. There's one problem however--it simply will not run! When I try to run it, it goes into a black screen as if it is starting to run, and then quickly exits back to Windows with no error.

I've installed the game, the v4.0 patch, and the Windows 2000/XP Compatibility Update several times. I've tried it with both patches, without either patch, as well as with only the 4.0 patch and only the Compatibility Update. I have installed the Win2k application compatibility update. I've also installed every update from Windows Update, including Windows 2000 SP3. My video and sound drivers are up-to-date, too. But still, nothing. I have even tried running it in Windows 98 compatibility mode. It did run before on Windows 98, but this may be the first time I've tried it on 2000 (I can't remember).

My system specs:

Windows 2000 SP3
PII-400
ATI Rage Fury 32MB
192MB SDRAM
Crappy factory motherboard

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Petek · December 4, 2002, 20:24

Look in the Downloads section at www.firaxis.com for an Alpha Centauri Win 2000/XP compatibility update.

Boughton · December 4, 2002, 20:39

I have already tried it, but no go.

DinoDoc · December 4, 2002, 21:30

It won't recognize my processor.

Method · December 4, 2002, 21:48

DD, i think that fix is forceoldvoxelalgorithm=1 in the alphacentauri.ini file

Archaic · December 5, 2002, 00:32

That's the fix for Pentium 4's. I don't know if that'd work for Pentium II's though.

Sikander · December 5, 2002, 02:41

Are you running SMAC or SMAX? If the latter, try to install without the v.4 patch for SMAC, and only with the v.2 patch for SMAX. This worked for me on my P4 with XP.

Boughton · December 5, 2002, 08:25

I'm using the original SMAC.

Petek · December 5, 2002, 21:17

Have you tried changing your video settings (more colors, less colors, higher res, lower res)?

Boughton · December 5, 2002, 22:01

Quote:

Originally posted by Petek
Have you tried changing your video settings (more colors, less colors, higher res, lower res)?

OH MY GOSH YOU ROCK!

Before, I had tried switching to as low as 256 colors all the way to 32-bit, but to no luck. I kept the desktop resolution at 1024x768 because I read somewhere that the game works with either that or 800x600. When you gave those suggestions I decided I might as well try it anyway, and voila. In 800x600 the game started right up! I really appreciated the help, guys!

johndmuller · December 7, 2002, 05:48

The .ini file recognizes settings for hi and lo resolutions (1024x768 and 800x600); I don't recall the syntax offhand, but they are in the readme file for one of the patches IIRC. Perhaps you could make use of one of them to either get into 1024x768 for the game or to force 800x600 for the game while running your system normally at a higher resolution.

That said, one time when I installed the game, I made a number of changes to the .ini file before I played any games - perhaps I copied an .ini file from another system which had settings I liked (like a faction selection that works with my PBEMS) or perhaps I just mixed and matched, but in any case I added the factions and I also remember including a resolution entry also. This installation seemed to crash in a way that was perhaps similar to the one you describe originally. I was never able to tinker the .ini file into a form that worked despite several tries and ended up just copying the whole AC subdirectory from another machine which worked just fine (even though copying just the .ini file didn't work - and that was all I had changed to the best of my recollection).

So it is apparently possible to get the installation into such a sad shape that it is at least very difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible to fix by adjusting the text files (although I would imagine it must be possible somehow). I have seen posts by others who have played extensively with stories of effed up installations as well and I would imagine that they tried hard before confessing their sorry states in public too.

gwillybj · February 26, 2003, 01:34

I know this is an old thread. It was listed in the results of a search. This just looked like a loose end.

johndmuller mentioned:

Quote:

The .ini file recognizes settings for hi and lo resolutions (1024x768 and 800x600); I don't recall the syntax offhand, but they are in the readme file for one of the patches IIRC. Perhaps you could make use of one of them to either get into 1024x768 for the game or to force 800x600 for the game while running your system normally at a higher resolution.

From the SMAC v4.0 patch readme.txt:

Quote:

Video Mode=800 or Video Mode=1024
This forces the screen resolution to either of these two sizes.

It has this item immediately before the preceeding:

Quote:

DirectDraw=0
Setting this to 0 disables DirectDraw. This disables the automatic window resolution resizing during program launch.

You can't use both.